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High price of alcohol drives demand for illegal drugs

Inga Ting

"The average night out at a bar can be $100 without even trying, whereas a couple of tables of ecstasy is $40 or $50." Photo: Supplied

The expense of alcohol is driving Australia's high rates of illicit drug use, health experts say, as new figures show Australia's combination of high levels of use and expensive illicit substances buck international trends.

Australia is one of the most expensive countries in which to buy illicit substances. It ranks second for amphetamine, fourth for cocaine, fifth for methamphetamine and eighth for both ecstasy and cannabis, according to price data in the 2014 UN World Drug Report and a 2014 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report on drug use trends.

However, high prices have not dampened demand for these drugs.

Australia has some of the world's highest rates of illicit drug use per capita, ranking first for ecstasy, second for opioids, third for amphetamines, fourth for cocaine and seventh for cannabis, according to the UN report.

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"Oceania [Australian and New Zealand] is something of an exception among the major consumer markets," the UN report states. Generally, cheaper drugs partner higher levels of use and vice versa.

"That's just sensible consumer behaviour at one level … It's no different to the choices one makes when shopping in a supermarket."

Cameron Duff of Monash University's School of Psychology and Psychiatry says young people frequently talk about the price of alcohol when explaining illicit drug use.

"The thing that comes through again and again is that party drugs, particularly ecstasy, are cheaper relative to alcohol," said Dr Duff, who has been researching cultural aspects of drug use for more than a decade.

"Young people are … thinking the average night out at a bar can be $100 without even trying, whereas a couple of tablets of ecstasy is $40 or $50."

Greater awareness of the harms associated with alcohol and tobacco was also pushing some people towards ecstasy and cannabis, Dr Duff said. And with a wealth of online resources such as global discussion forum Bluelight available, those who wanted to try illicit drugs could more easily find information about the risks.

"This is one of the other myths that is offensive to young people: that young people get drunk, take risks, don’t think about it," Dr Duff said. "Nothing could be further from the truth.

"They compare [alcohol's] risks and harms with those perceived to be associated with ecstasy, and they say: 'Ecstasy seems to me to be a safer drug'."

Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Alex Wodak says there is "no doubt alcohol is far more damaging".

"[Ecstasy] is not harmless by any means ... But if people migrated from alcohol to cannabis or ecstasy, they would be migrating from high risk to low risk," Dr Wodak said.

Alcohol consumption cost society an estimated $14.4 billion in 2010, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

However, Jo Baxter, executive director of advocacy group Drug Free Australia, rejected the link with alcohol prices. She said organised crime was aware Australians had high disposable incomes and were prepared to pay high prices for illicit drugs.

"People are choosing to do it because of risk-taking behaviour," she said. "We need more education about what ecstasy and other amphetamine-type stimulants can do to the brain."

Professor Ritter said Australians were "surprisingly conservative" when it came to illicit substances. Most Australians were against the legalisation of cannabis or ecstasy, and the latest alcohol figures showed "a much greater rate of abstinence among young people than there’s ever been".

Illicit drug use cost the Australian society an estimated $8.2 billion in 2004-05, according to the latest available statistics.